Contingent Policies, Complex Contexts and ROAD-MAPPING : Ways and Plays Forward

Abstract

This chapter first presents an overview of the complex language policy contexts of the internationalising universities. It starts from the multi-layeredness of university language settings and their political contingency and moves on to discuss the ROAD-MAPPING framework and the way it has acknowledged these complexities, both theoretically and empirically. After briefly observing the geographical and disciplinary contexts in the volume, the discussion moves on to the chapters’ contribution to ROAD-MAPPING and the ways in which the chapter authors discuss the benefits and drawbacks of the framework. The coda closes with a suggestion on how the framework could be used differently. For that, an approach of subversive play with the framework is proposed. In order to understand the messy and multi-layered realities of languages in higher education, we need to give space for the unexpected. Playing with the framework offers a possibility to challenge our assumptions and expectations about language in higher education.